1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to vending machines, and more particularly to an automated vending machine resembling an enlarged reproduction of a traditional traffic control signal adapted to vend vacation-related goods.
2. Description of the Related Art
In vacation-oriented travel, people routinely forget to pack certain vacation-related items that only after having already departed or arrived at their destination is this dilemma realized. In addition, locating a particular store carrying vacation-related items such as maps, disposable cameras, 35 mm camera film, sunglasses, binoculars, ball caps, sunscreen, and sun visors can be difficult, especially if one is unfamiliar with the geographic area. Furthermore, finding an individual store supplying all of the aforementioned items is unlikely, not to mention valuable vacation time wasted on searching for these items. Moreover, conventional vending machines generally dispense only food and beverage products and fail to incorporate a vending machine with ornamental housing which dispenses goods having an identifiable grouping or theme which require unique handling.
Accordingly, a need has arisen for a means to dispense vacation-related goods via a vending machine which resembles a particular identifiable object being dominated by object's general character. The development of the automated vending machine fulfills this need.
A search of the prior art did not disclose any patents that read directly on the claims of the instant invention; however, the following references were considered related:
U.S. Pat. No. 6,241,151, issued in the name of Swain et al., describes a self-service terminal of the type adaptable for use with an ATM machine.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,323,894, issued in the name of Katz, describes a commercial product routing system with video vending capability.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,923,906, issued in the name of Zander, describes a photograph vending device.
U.S. Pat. No. D468,361, issued in the name of Ainscough, describes an ornamental design for a camera vending machine.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,359,631 and Reissue Pat. No. RE32,115, issued in the name of Lockwood et al, describe a self service terminal for dispensing voice and video information.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,668,150, issued in the name of Blumberg, discloses a vending machine for video cassettes.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,875,110, issued in the name of Jacobs, describes an interactive, sequentially prompting vending machine.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,159,560, issued in the name of Newll et al, describes an automated merchandise dispensing and retrieval system.